Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!sdcc6!amos!jonah
From: jonah@amos.ucsd.edu (Jonah Stich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: 3200 Paint Programs
Message-ID: <12472@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 30 Aug 90 16:54:53 GMT
References: <445@fawlty.towers.oz>
Sender: news@sdcc6.ucsd.edu
Organization: University of California, San Diego
Lines: 43
Nntp-Posting-Host: amos.ucsd.edu

In article <445@fawlty.towers.oz> johnmac@fawlty.towers.oz (John MacLean) writes:
>Has anyone seen or heard anything about Dream Graphics lately?
>Does anyone know how it is implemented?
>ie: Does it require a switch between painting and displaying, or
>does it just use the vertical blank time to allow painting - 
>which would give very slow response.

Well, it grey scales out the screen and the 14 lines around the cursor are in
'REAL' color. This is the exact same way I did it (though I did it before I
saw his! :)  It looks really nice--the screen is about as well thought out as
sunthLab.

>Does it automatically/dynamically assign palettes - or do you have
>to do it manually?

Huh? You select colors for the palettes as in a norrmal paint program. There
are also options to copy a palette from one line to the next, etc.

>How about any other 3200 paint program (eg: Jonahs etc)?

Well, I hear Jonah is having a HELL of a time getting his brush tool to work,
which, added to the fact that he's been working on Twilight AND GIF 3200 has
pushed the release date back a few centuries. This is just a rumor, however. :)

>Has anyone out there done any 640 x 200 palette swapping and perhaps
>palette optimizations?

What exactly do you mean here? I assume you're talking about 640 3200 color
mode and the idea suggested a while ago to apply the theory of change lists
to 3200 color palettes. I know Bud Gher is working on CheapPaint II which 
will do '256' color 640 mode, and I think Emeral Visions, the new 3200 color
paint program from New Concepts (written by Ron Mercer) can allegedly do '3200'
color 640 mode. Then again, Emerald Vision is supposed to be able to let
you paint in 3200 colors, real time, while staying fully GS/OS & toolbox
compatible, which I donn't believe for a second.... As for palette 
optimizations, I know there's someone who said they were going to work on it,
but their name has temporarily slipped my mind. I'm sure he'll see this and
beat it back in there, as he's a frequent reader of the net....
>
>John MacLean.

Jonah Stich
jonah@amos.ucsd.edu